Two proposed trust funds would allow real estate developers to pay the city of Pittsburgh to build green spaces and stormwater management infrastructure if they’re not able to include those elements on the sites of new projects in Downtown or North Shore.

Pittsburgh City Council approved the creation of an Open Space Trust Fund and a Stormwater Management Trust Fund in two unanimous preliminary votes Wednesday.

Pittsburgh's Department of City Planning has proposed the use of a zoning tool called an Interim Planning Overlay District, or IPOD, to harness greater public participation in determining the future use of its riverfronts.

Shores wrapping from Hazelwood to the Strip District, across the North Shore and along the South Side have transformed in recent years from industrial hubs to places to live, work, shop and play.

In July, the mayor signed a new law that clarified and enabled urban agriculture. But city farming, whether personal or commercial, isn’t so much a new idea as it is a throwback.

After a long day of moving goats around the city, Doug Placais stood – sweaty, covered in dirt – a mile from Downtown Pittsburgh at Arlington Acres, the one-tenth of an acre urban farm he owns and operates with Carrie Pavlik.

“Well, UPS is funny because, you know, they ask you what’s in there. So the first time I said, ‘goat blood,’ and he actually didn’t blink, to his credit. I don’t know how he held a straight face.”

Nearly six months after its creation, the city’s Affordable Housing Task Force met for the first time last week. The group’s mission is to help maintain healthy neighborhoods by finding solutions to housing issues and developing strategies to keep communities affordable. Task force co-chair and city Planning Director Ray Gastil shares what was said at the first meeting and where the group plans to go from here.

Designing roads in an area that comes to a point, rather than a square grid, is an infrastructure challenge unique to the Golden Triangle that burdens city planners with a bustling intersection joining Stanwix Street, Liberty Avenue, Penn Avenue and Forbes Avenue.